PROCEEDINGS OF THE OHIO ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 383 



properties would be very similar. It is found that the only im- 

 portant difference is in their action upon polarized light. The 

 one form known as the dextro form, rotates the plane of polar- 

 ized light to the right while the other known as the levo, rotates 

 it an equal amount to the left. Mixtures containing equal weights 

 of the two forms would therefore be inactive towards light. 



Now if we synthesize a compound containing an asymmetric 

 carbon atom we always obtain the dextro and levo forms in equal 

 amounts and hence the product is optically inactive, the action 

 of the one form upon polarized light being neutralized by the 

 action of the other. This is just what we should expect for in 

 combining the different groups to form the molecule the chances 

 for the groups to combine in the one form are just the same as 

 their chances to combine in the other form. The remarkable fact, 

 however, is that when a compound containing an asymmetric car- 

 bon atom is found in nature it is (with only two or three excep- 

 tions among the hundreds of such compounds known) always 

 one of the active forms and not the mixture of the two. This 

 striking difference between the natural and the laboratory syn- 

 thesis has naturally attracted a great deal of attention and led 

 to very extended research with the hope of accounting for this 

 difference between nature's method and the laboratory method. 

 The fact still remains, however, that no one has ever yet suc- 

 ceeded in building up in the laboratory from its elements or from 

 optically inactive materials an optically active compound — and 

 yet this is just what nature is doing all about us constantly. The 

 striking difference between the natural and artificial synthesis has 

 been strongly urged as a valid argument in favor of the principle 

 of vitalism, the adherents of this view claiming that this differ- 

 ence forces us to the conclusion that the phenomena of life are 

 not explicable in terms of physics and chemistry, but that they 

 point to "the existence of a directive force which enters upon 

 the scene with life itself and while acting through the laws of 

 the kinetics of atoms determines the course of their operations 

 within the living organism." 



The study of synthetic organic chemistry, however, has not 

 been confined to the mere building up of compounds. More and 



